Snakes are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon's largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government's environmental protection agency said Tuesday.
The agency, known as Ibama, has been called out to capture 21 snakes this year in Belem, a sprawling metropolis of 1.5 million people at the mouth of the Amazon River, Ibama press officer Luciana Almeida said by telephone.
In normal years, Ibama gets no more than one or two calls a month, she said. No poisonous snakes were reported, but the captured snakes included a 10-foot anaconda, usually a jungle recluse.
"People are scared," she said. "Imagine finding a 3-meter snake in your plumbing. Deforestation destroys their habitat, so they come to the city."
Almeida said Ibama believes the increase in snakes is a result of rising deforestation by loggers, ranchers and developers in the Amazon jungle surrounding the Belem urban area.
Ibama has a veterinary team that captures the snakes and takes them to a zoo or to an outlying park to release them, Almeida said.
The clearing of Brazil's Amazon rain forest jumped in the final months of 2007, spurred by heavy market demand for corn, soy and cattle. The 36 areas being targeted registered the highest rates of deforestation, environmental officials said.
Ibama estimates as much as 2,700 square miles of rain forest was cleared from August through December, meaning that Brazil could lose 5,800 square miles of jungle by August if the rate continues.
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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